Last updated 19:50, Thursday, 14 August 2008

THIS WEEKEND sees Cuumbria’s biggest motoring event of the year - Cumbria Classic Weekend at Dalemain House on the A592 Penrith-Ullswater road.

Tomorrow sees the cars take part in the Pennine Classic Tour and on Sunday there is the main public part with the Cumbria Classic Car Show in the grounds of the picturesque Dalemain House from 11am to 4pm.

This is the 20th year of the weekend and we are also celebrating three other major anniversaries at the show.

There is 60 years of the Jaguar XJ engine with a large number of XK-engined cars from the late Forties onwards from the Solway Jaguar Club.

Several Land Rover Owners’ clubs will show vehicles from the 60 years of Land Rover and the MG and Healey clubs will celebrate 50 years of the Sprite and Midget.

The show is also the North West regional event for the MG Owners’ Club.

There will be over 400 classic and competition cars on display along with club stands from the major car clubs in the region. The show is also the Cumbrian part of National Motor Sport Week.

There will be action areas with sporting trials, 4x4s and autotests as well as displays of race, rally and speed event cars. Volunteers in Motorsport will also be on hand to encourage more people to get involved in organising and marshalling on events.

Admission to the show is £5 per adult with OAPs at £3 and parking is free.

Bill Kirkpatrick took his MG B to the Oldtimers GP meeting at the Nurburgring for the 500km event last Friday.

The race had 100 entries on the 14-mile circuit and was held in dreadful weather. The race was red flagged due to exceptional circumstances when Bill was lying 59th.

The Bo’ness Revival Hill Climb took place last weekend and that too was hit by the heavy rain. The two-day event at the Falkirk venue was the first to be held there since 1964.

Prior to that the track had run rounds of the British Hill Climb Championship and was the first purpose-built motorsport venue in Scotland.

Over the years drivers like Stirling Moss, Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart competed there.

A band of enthusiasts have worked hard to revive the track which is in a public park. Around half the track still exists and the local council resurfaced it for the event. It is hoped to double the length of the track for next year’s event.

An invited entry of some 60 vintage and classic cars took part in the event in front of a large crowd.

Saturday saw a lot of rain and heavy overnight rain saw the paddock unusable on Sunday. However the weather was rather better and most drivers got several dry runs.

There were several Cumbrians taking part. Peter Speakman took his Chapman Mercury to second in class with Keith Thomas’s Buckler third in the same class. Robert MacGillivray was third in his class in the Turner MG and Graeme Forrester was third in class 8 in his MG B.